Curriculum News

Purina proudly calls St. Louis, Missouri home, and takes supporting their communities very seriously. Since many St. Louis youth face academic challenges tied to poverty, Purina set out to find a program to reach at-risk kids that linked social and emotional learning with their core mission of providing supplies to people who love their pets. They searched for seven years, but no program resonated until they found the Mutt-i-grees Curriculum.

Through the years, our Mutt-i-grees Student Ambassadors have made lasting impacts on the lives of shelter animals and the members of their community by making it their mission to empower fellow students to cultivate empathy and achieve awareness. Student Ambassadors are nominated by faculty or others at Mutt-i-grees schools. Rosie Ferrell is the exception: She brought the Mutt-i-grees Curriculum to her school, Cascia Hall Preparatory School.

We designed the brand new Muttigrees At Home as a fun resource to help parents and children become more aware, confident, and effective. It is inspired by new research on the benefits of canine-based activities that clearly shows the transformative power of the dog. You don’t actually need to have a dog to use Muttigrees At Home —just looking at pictures of a dog works to bring about change! Parents will find simple ways to help their child learn to care, find friends and improve academically.

Many schools are taking an extra step in implementing The Mutt-i-grees Curriculum by having their own school dog — a dog, owned by a teacher, counselor or principal, who comes to school every day.

Not every rescue pup has the right personality to be a school dog, but Rosemarie Tombolo has a knack for picking the best. She started as a kennel associate at Animal League America six years ago when she was just 18, and now that she’s a kennel manager, her passion is adoption matchmaking. Rosie says, “nine times out of ten when I pick a dog for an adopter, that’s the dog they end up taking home.”

Choosing 45 rescue pups with the temperament to become school dogs in New York City’s highly successful Comfort Dog program is more involved. They must be able to handle noisy crowds, love being around lots of children, and stay calm and responsive no matter what’s going on. Jayne Vitale, director of outreach and youth development programs for Mutt-i-grees, calls Rosemarie “a magical matchmaker who has become a critical part of the Mutt-i-grees team. She’s incredibly wise and passionate about the role of the school dog, and raising the awareness of shelter pets.”

We are honored that The Mutt-i-grees Curriculum has been recognized as a revolutionary education program that needs to be shared with the world. It was selected from almost 1,000 international entrants for its unique groundbreaking efforts to enhance the social and emotional competence of children. International researchers and educators rigorously evaluated programs for their originality, impact, and ability to be expanded to a global scale to teach children in many different cultures. We are very excited at the opportunity to increase the reach of The Mutt-i-grees Curriculum to impact the lives of many more children and animals around the world!

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The Mutt-i-grees® Curriculum is an innovative PreK-12 curriculum that developscalm, confident, caring kids and creates a more humane future for all throughsocial and emotional learning. An initiative of North Shore Animal League America’sprogram development branch, The Pet Savers Foundation™, Inc., the Curriculumwas developed by Yale University's School of the 21st Century.